Project
NewsJuly 31, 2006The Prologue coming on Wednesday!
This Wednesday we will be releasing the prologue! It would be best described as a wild starter quest which will be the first thing everyone sees when they first play the game. Do not worry, if you are already a high level you will get to experience it too... and it will be playable at your current power level! Expect it to be short and to the point... if there is one thing everyone hates about intros, its the long boring ones with 30 minutes of non-stop confusing reading (unless you like that sort of thing... hmmm.... that gives me an idea) Battle on!

P.S. Be afraid, be very afraid.

July 26, 2006The Biggest Adventure (That will fit in your browser) !
A King and his three daughters stand proudly in the throneroom of a magnificient castle. It is a beautiful world of neverending opportunity.... right at the dusk of its darkest hour. Bands of renegades have been assaulting innocent travelers. The Guardian towers have fallen under siege. A massive army of the undead gathers under the watchful gaze of a Doomed Knight. Ancient Dragons are rising from their long slumber (and they are pretty dang cranky... maybe some coffee would help). The bones of the largest Dragon anyone has ever dreamed of... simply dissapeared one day. A story of adventure (and some of the worst puns you have ever heard) yearns to be told.... and it will be a story about you! (And me too, because I am going to sneak my character in to play along side you for some parts... unless you do horrible things to Artix... like push him off cliffs or shoot him with arrows [That is one way to make Paladins "Holey"! ) Against a backdrop of heroes, villians and legendandary cool sounding things... we are about to make history (literally, for AQ)! If there is something you really want to see happen in Chapter 1 of DragonFable, please let us know on the forums now! Chapter 1 Final is officially in production.

DOOOOOOOOOM!

Scaling Monster Test Tonight! Just released!
Login in tonight (Wednesday) to help us test our new "level scaling" monsters. These monsters change their levels to match yours which will allow us to create special events and wars that players of all levels can participate in. After running the test please let us know what your finishing health was on the official forum thread.

Website Anniversary!
Thanks to Mighty Mosquito on the forums for pointing out today is the anniversary of the DragonFable website opening! He also makes a good point -- what will count as DF's official anniversary?

July 26th, 2005: Creation of DF website

November 30th, 2005: Release of first beta

June 9th, 2006: Release of the full game

???, 2006: Release of full public beta!

I think we should celebrate all of these dates (more reasons to do wierd things in game the better). Any ideas on what we should do today? See you on the forums.

July 25 2006Geopetal is insaneamazing aminsanzing! She compiled a HUGE complete list of all the known DragonFable bugs. We all took one look at that list and cheered... except for our lead coder Zhoom... he saw the list and made like a Ninja into the shadows. Once we pry him out from under his desk he has a big day of work ahead of him *chuckle*. Actually, we all do! Today is Balancing day #2!!!! Weapon BOOSTS here we come!

12:00 pm: Bad math! Bad! Go to you room with no supper until your coefficients start behaving. A math bug has been fixed... Cysero, Safiria, Nythera and myself have resumed weapon boostage! 12:15 pm: The Dravir and Ghost had their damage reduced since they do multiple strikes on each attack. 12:45 pm: I printed out 60 sheets of revised weapon damages for us to enter in.... the Printer ran out of ink. Cysero had a yogurt. 1:30 pm: Maces and Axes are done... the other weapons are all about half way through! 1:40 pm: Whoops! All pets were accidentally flagged as type "cloth". We um... changed them to be "pets". Which was a lot easier than creating linen versions of our existing pets. 2:00 pm: Just realized the sun was outside... (switched A.M. to P.M.) 2:38 pm: Pets updated with elements (Slimes do posion) Only staffs are left for re-balancing! the staff is on the staffs! 2:55 pm: Reens, Rolith, Zhoom, Safiria, Cap'n Rhubarb, and Lady Tomo have a video conference open for the first time testing the upcoming pet fixes... and I think we are all a bit camera shy.3:10 pm: Reens, Rolith, Zhoom, Safiria, Cap'n Rhubarb, and Lady Tomo have a video conference open for the first time testing the upcoming pet fixes... and I think we are all a bit camera shy. 6:15 pm: That was a long Yogurt break Cysero! 6:20 pm: Weapon balancing is done! And I have a tale to share... a tale of the largest Dragon the world has ever seen. Well, actually no one has ever seen it... because it is dead. The bones of this Dragon are so huge that you could use it as the foundation of a castle. Which is wierd because there were rumors that an ecentric prince was doing exactly that! Even stranger yet..... the Dragon remains are now missing. I mean... HOW DO YOU MISPLACE SOMETHING THE SIZE OF A CASTLE? The answer to this question and many more coming tomorrow as we begin building the biggest adventure that ever fit in your web browser!6:25 pm: You can now equip pets in the middle of a Battle (clear your cache!)

"What happens on Balance day #2... stays in... er, no... actually let us hope it is all completely forgotten about on day #3!"Let the madness begin .... more information coming as it happens!

July 24, 2006Doooooom! Unimaginable balancing Dooooooooom!
Monsters will grow in power.... items will go berserk.... things will break and shatter like Galanoth walking blindfolded through one of those glass statue stores at the mall! The forums will be ignited in the flames of fiery lava-like (and occasionally luke-warm... think setting 2 or 3 on your toaster) wrath! Today, my brave and couragous friends -- is balancing day!

1:00 pm: Mortal Balancing... bas begun! 1:30 pm: Fire Cave monsters buffed --- should be super hard right now since the weapons have not been increased yet, but massive more exp! If you are level 12+ and playing, please give it a try! (Note: You must be insane to try this)1:50 pm: Random monsters around the world are getting HP, EXP, and DMG buffs2:00 pm: The Doom Crawler -- oh dear... oh no... what have we done!2:10 pm: Massive HP buff for players. You now get 20 HP per level (instead of 5 HP)2:30 pm: Whoops! Fixing the dungeon EXP caps now.... *looks innocent* Monsters 75% done 2:45 pm: OMG! 6,013+ users online ..... is everyone showing up just to watch us break stuff? (Do not answer that) 3:20 pm: Monsters almost done! Hotdogs have invaded town... and Cysero is on a Yogurt Break. 3:40 pm: ACK!!!!!!! We accidentally bent the EXP curve downwards so far that a single kill would level characters -- this happened for about 10 minutes and should be fixed with the proper curve now. (On a scale of 1 to 10 that mess up counts as an 11). 4:00 pm: Exp Table has been updated. It is now realistically possible to get level 25. Weapon buffs starting shortly!4:00 pm: New Term: DPT (Damage per Turn) This is how you grade a weapon's overall power. All classes do an average of 2x DPT when used effectively. The bigger the range of damage the more wild a weapon is. Example: 5 to 5 damage is stable.... 1 to 10 damage is wild. Both are 5 DPT. 4:30 pm: Eeep, healing pads, Posion and Potions need adjusting. Oh, and a quick note on the Exp Curve -- yes, it is much faster to level (through all levels because you get more EXP form monsters). If you were already level 20+ before the new curve, you are a god and will live your entire life knowing it. The new curve that is in place will take us to level 100 (which will be exactly 1 Million Exp for the record). Todays balances will be crazy... but ultimately they are laying the ground work for PvP, new Areas, new Skills and and a world full of fun Adventuring! Thank you for helping us work towards it! 5:00 pm: After much deliberation..... what were we thinking... this is madness... the Doom Weapons... too much doom... too much DOOM to handle! 6:30 pm: Weapon boosting in progress! Most low level weapons have been updated (There are so many!) -- we will continue boosting weapons into tomorrow -- you will know when we are done... you will know by keeping an eye on the Hotdogs!

July 21, 2006The Eggs have hatched!
The eggs have hatched and early reports form the forums have been great! There is one small bug, you cannot currently equip the pet in battle -- however, you can equip them while just walking around. We will be fixing this as soon as possible. Be careful not to accidentally delete your pet!

Ghosts at the Inn!
Head to the inn and inquire about the spooks that have been potted there. Seems like it is time for a song!

[Any of you up for writing a DF forum Ghostbusters song spoof?] Battle on!

New York
I was out of town again this week for several meetings in New York. The plane ride was nice but the layover in Willowshire simply took forever. They said it was bad weather, but I bet that giant green Dragon by that Guardian flight control tower had something to to with it. Our production schedule should get back to normal starting next week!

July 19, 2006Haunted Inn
Business has been bad for the little Inn in our town. Ever since the undead assault just a few weeks ago ghosts and spooks have been occupying rooms causing trouble for customers. At least that is the rumor that is floating around. Perhaps we will learn more about this on Friday.

Death Note
I do not normally go this far off subject, but a lot of the staff (including myself) has gotten hooked on a Manga series called Death Note. It is like a haunted detective murder mystery where the main character is both the killer and the sleuth -- it has more twists and turns than a pack of twizzlers. It is about a college student named "Light" who finds this Death Notebook. Anyones name he writes in it dies. Whomever possesses the Death Note is haunted by a Shinigami (A Japanese god of Death) and by the time the Shinigami (named Ryuk) shows up.... Light has already filled up most of the book! I would say the content is appropriate for ages 15+ and issues 1 through 6 are available in the Manga section of pretty much every bookstore. I strongly suggest picking it up and reading the first dozen pages.... if you like it, you MUST start with issue #1. (It ruins it the other way).

Zhoom, Cysero and I have been having duels trying to "call out" key plot points before they happen --- they are currently on Issue #7 and neither of us has any idea on how Light is going to get his original death note back.... if you have been reading it too, lets get a thread going and talk about it. My big call is that Naomi Misora is not dead. If you read early in book #2 you see that her fiance says they are about to start a family -- which likely means she is pregnant. And some of the random Death Note rules say they you cannot kill anyone under a certain number of days old, you can not kill someone if it will cause the death of another person who is not scheduled to die at that time. My guess is that she will show up right after Light (aka Kirra) gets his book back and thinks he is in the clear. Also a funny note... in Japanese there is no L's so they replace them with R's. So, haha, they are really calling him "Killa". *coughs* Natural Born Kirra *coughs*. Anyways, it has been almost a month since the last issue was released so hopefully the next one will be out soon.... *twitch* *twitch*

As for a bigger thread topic -- what is everyones favorite books and authors? Do you read novels? Manga? Comics?

P.S. No I was not paid in any way for this shout out about Deathnote. We just think it is the most brilliant and creative thing we have seen in a long time. However! If the folks at Shonen Jump would like a shout out for every issue that is released (Do not tell them I will probably be talking about it anyways) feel free to send a pre-release copy of the next issue to:

Artix von Krieger
P.O. Box 2005
Land O' Lakes, FL 34639

I wonder if they will really send one. *twitch* Battle on! We need to spoof the Deathnote in DF -- The Deathscroll (using the scame scroll art we use in every game!) "Any character's name that is chiseled on this scroll will {mysteriously dissapear} within 30 minutes". Then give it to a random member of the forums (or Amdusias Fuffur ) and see what happens.

July 18, 2006Danger! Danger Will Robinson!
Game balancing is a scary scary thing to do.... and I sure hope no one saw what happened today (looks innocent!). When the balancing is done, I think you will be happy -- Players and Monsters will have more Health, do more Damage, and the game should have a better feel. Then we can start putting more stuff into the game (Better to fix the imbalances before moving forward than to have to boost/nerf everything later). As it stands... everything is getting a boost!

The Schedule:

Item and Monster balancing will take place starting Monday the 24th.

I have a strong feeling those Eggs will be cracking this week!

Cysero is working on a fun quest for Friday!

Balance testing in the Arena is coming this week!

July 13, 2006New Quest: The Secret of the Tower!
In Willowshire, Gorgok is defeated and escapes with his tail between his legs. The Dragon leaves behind a handful of Dravir who rush into the Guardian tower! It is a race to find out what they were after. What item could possibly cause a Dragon to attack? Better yet... is it there? You can now use Warlic's portal to travel to Willowshire.

Weapon and Monster Buffs coming next week!
If you thought the Doom Weapons were strong now.... *Evil Chuckle* next week we will be increasing weapon damages for nearly all levels! We will also be increasing your hit points and balancing monsters. These changes are being made in preparation for A.I. PvP and the MASSIVE amount of upcoming quests and events.

July 12, 2006Lord Alexander Valorus
In the pages of our Loremaster's oldest tomes we have found some evidence that the first Guardians were a band of adventurers. The books say that these adventurers were sent by a noble King to find out where an increasingly large number of elemental monsters were coming from. The pages that explain the years that followed were missing or destroyed. What we found next was written after the Towers were created. It is an excerpt from the Journal of Lord Alexander Valorus, Commander of the Guardian Tower of Nature:

"Dear Journal,
It has been twenty years since the other seven Guardians and myself took the oath to protect the world from evil using the power we have been granted. Doing this means I must also keep the secrets of our power safe. I have just finished the vault which requires four magical gems to open. That should keep it far from the hands of of those who would use it for wrong. I heard that the other Tower lords made their vaults even more secure. I still wonder what would have happened if we had not found this Amulet before that day twenty years ago. Would he have eaten us? ... everyone in the kingdom? It matters little now. Well, I better go do a final check before closing the door for good. Hah, I also better make sure that door does not shut while I am in there.... there is no way to open it form the inside. That would be terribly embarrasing. "- From the Journal of Lord Alexander Valorus.

Eggs will be removed from the Dungeons on Monday!
We will be removing the eggs from the loot tables on Monday. They will be available in the shops until Wednesday... hope they do not hatch in there!

LightSwitch Gamers
Fanyen.... LightSwitch gamers is a really good one! Cysero divined "Burst Gamers" from some other posts that were on there too.

July 11, 2006What is under the Guardian Tower in Willowshire?
This weekend we will venture into the underground passageways of the Guardian Tower that was destroyed in Willowshire. What was down there? Is it possible that deep below the tower you will find the secret that Gorgok and his minions were after?

New AQ Video
The animator that is working on the Animated Web/TV pilot put together a new AQ promo video. It looks awesome (Although I see Galanoth snuck a bunch of DF art in there!)

July 10, 2006Monster Egg Update A lot of people have hunted hard for one of these rare eggs. It is very certain that once the eggs are removed from the dungons they will slowly start to grow, shake, make noises... and over an unknown period of time they will hatch! If you have one, and reload you character you will notice the word RARE is now in the name of your egg. These rare eggs will now produce a rarer version of the monster when it hatches. Rare eggs can only be found in the dungeons.

Other EggsIf lady luck has not been favoring your search, but you do not want to miss out on this creature hatching event, you will be able to get a common version of the eggs from Cysero's Dragon Amulet shop. Common eggs will produce the same monster as their rare equivalent, but have a different name, and possibly a different color. We came to this compromise because we listened carefully to your feedback on the forums -- we wanted to keep the rare eggs rare AND let everyone who really wanted to participate get in on the fun. Thank you and see you on the forums! With all this egg talk... it is hard to believe the giant amount of work going on in the background on things we have not even mentioned yet!

July 9, 2006Stress Test and Monster Pet Egg Extension Everyone seems to be having a good time, a lot of players would like longer to find the eggs, and there has not been enough stress on the stress test.... so... um... lets extend everything! We increased the drop rate of the eggs a little last night. (The highest drop rates are in the Amulet dungeons).Once we finally remove them from the dungeons they will start to do... whatever it is hatching eggs do. Be sure to sit on them!

July 8, 2006Monster Pet Eggs! We just added three monster pet eggs to the dungeon loot tables! Yes, eggs that will hatch. We do not know where they are, or when they will hatch, or what they will hatch into! BUT.... these first ones will be rare versions of our upcomign pets and will only be able to find them for a few days! Team up on the forums... let people know what you found and where you found it! ... and keep a close eye, the locations might change over time!

July 7, 2006Good Question!So I was asked "Hey Artix, I am not a Guardian yet, so I was wondering.... if I buy a Dragon Amulet, will I still be able to play DF after the Stress Test is Over?". It would be pretty funny if someone bought a Dragon Amulet and then was not able to play.... so yes, if you have an amulet you can absolutely, positively play!

It would be funny if.... ... the servers could not handle the players this weekend and we had to change the animation of Twilly on the homepage to make that giant steel bar squish'em. The content juggernaut has been hard at work building everything from dungeons made entirely of bone to a giant whale belly you can explore. 15 to 20 new monsters are being created too! Pages full of beautifuly dangerous weapons are coming your way -- and Cysero is demanding that we add a bank soon. It is just like Heinz Ketchup -- good things come to....

July 3, 2006Back from Warrior's Mark This weekend I flew to my birthplace in PA to attend my cousins wedding. The full version of the story involves groomsmen being hurled off a hill and children running in terror from a giant smoking pig. It was an honor to be there and a great trip with so many stories (I love telling stories). My entire family lives in PA. It is easy to spot them if you go to their houses because all of my grandparents and great grandparents have Twilly and Zorbak dolls on display at their places.

P.S. The BEST story from the trip is about my other cousin who runs a TV commercial studio. He was making a mission impossible style commercial for one of the local car dealerships. They were doing the shoot late at night and had a large group of guys wearing black ski masks breaking into the dealership to "find out the secret to how the dealership made so many sales". They even lowered one guy down from the ceiling with a disk in his mouth to hack a computer. Well, they were doing the big "BUSTED" scene at the end where all of the guys are fleeing from the building.... and the REAL cops show up. LOL! Apparently the neighbors had seen all these actors in masks and called the police. So, haha, the police pull up as these fellas are running out of the dealership in the gettaway scene. *Nervous chuckle* It was a little spooky but It all turned out fine. They even asked the police if they wanted to help in the final shot.

Do you have any interesting stories from family visits? See you on the forums!